This Week in Classical Music: March 22, 2021.Bartók and much more.Béla Bartók’s 140th birthday is on March 25th.Bartók was one of the most brilliant composers of the 20th century, and we feel that these days he is not being played as often as he should be.Maybe it’s a temporary problem: even though his music is tonal in general terms, it may be too pungent for the Covid era.We’ve written about Bartók many times, for example here, here and here.A much more difficult, but also superb composer was born on March 26th of 1925: Pierre Boulez.There has been much public debating about the music of Boulez and other rigorously atonal and serialist composers such as Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt.The young American composer and conductor, Matthew Aucoin wrote a scathing article in the NY Review of Books called Sound and Fury (very much worth reading).William Bolcom, who is 82, responded gently in Remembering Boulez.This debate is not going away.
A very different composer, Johann Adolph Hasse was born on March 25th of 1699 near Hamburg. A German, he was instrumental in developing the Italian Opera Seria.Hasse stands as one of the great opera composer of the early 18th century, on par with Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara of the generation before him, and George Frideric Handel, Nicola Porpora, Antionio Vivaldi and Leonardo Vinci, with whom he competed directly.Here’s a lovely aria from Hasse’s 1742 opera Didona Abbandonata on the libretto of his friend Metastasio.The countertenor is Valer Barna-Sabadus.Hofkapelle München is conducted by Michael Hofstetter.
Franz Schreker is another opera composer who was very popular during his lifetime but who disappeared practically without a trace soon after.Here is what we’ve written about him a couple years ago.And that year, as this one, the pianist Egon Petri had his anniversary during the same week.Like Bartók, he was born in 1881 and would be 140 on March 23rd.
Speaking of pianists: Byron Janis will turn 92 on March 24th.At the age of eight he became Vladimir Horowitz’s very first pupil.Janis played his debut concert at the Carnegie Hall in 1948 and instantly became one of the stars of his generation; he performed with all major orchestras and played at many major halls worldwide.In 1960, two years after Van Cliburn had won the first Tchaikovsky competition, Janis toured the Soviet Union with spectacular success.In 1973 he developed arthritis which brought his brilliant career to a halt.Here’s Byron Janis playing Rachmaninov’s Prelude in E-Flat Major, Op. 23, No. 6
And then there are two моrе eminent pianists, Wilhelm Backhaus and Rudolf Serkin.Backhaus was born on March 26th of 1884 in Leipzig, Serkin – on March 28th of 1903 in Eger, a town in Bohemia now called Cheb.Both immensely talented, both great interpreters of the music of Beethoven, both native German speakers, both spent a lot of time in the US, but it’s hard to imagine more different biographies.Backhaus was close to the Nazis and knew Hitler personally, though eventually he emigrated from Nazi Germany to Switzerland.Serkin, of Russian-Jewish decent, lived in Vienna and then in Berlin, but after the rise of Nazism had to flee Germany first to Switzerland then to the US.
Last but not least, Mstislav Rostropovich.The great cellist was born on March 27th of 1927.
Bartok & more, 2021
This Week in Classical Music: March 22, 2021. Bartók and much more. Béla Bartók’s 140th birthday is on March 25th. Bartók was one of the most brilliant composers of the 20th century,
and we feel that these days he is not being played as often as he should be. Maybe it’s a temporary problem: even though his music is tonal in general terms, it may be too pungent for the Covid era. We’ve written about Bartók many times, for example here, here and here. A much more difficult, but also superb composer was born on March 26th of 1925: Pierre Boulez. There has been much public debating about the music of Boulez and other rigorously atonal and serialist composers such as Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt. The young American composer and conductor, Matthew Aucoin wrote a scathing article in the NY Review of Books called Sound and Fury (very much worth reading). William Bolcom, who is 82, responded gently in Remembering Boulez. This debate is not going away.
A very different composer, Johann Adolph Hasse was born on March 25th of 1699 near Hamburg. A German, he was instrumental in developing the Italian Opera Seria. Hasse stands as one of the great opera composer of the early 18th century, on par with Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara of the generation before him, and George Frideric Handel, Nicola Porpora, Antionio Vivaldi and Leonardo Vinci, with whom he competed directly. Here’s a lovely aria from Hasse’s 1742 opera Didona Abbandonata on the libretto of his friend Metastasio. The countertenor is Valer Barna-Sabadus. Hofkapelle München is conducted by Michael Hofstetter.
Franz Schreker is another opera composer who was very popular during his lifetime but who disappeared practically without a trace soon after. Here is what we’ve written about him a couple years ago. And that year, as this one, the pianist Egon Petri had his anniversary during the same week. Like Bartók, he was born in 1881 and would be 140 on March 23rd.
Speaking of pianists: Byron Janis will turn 92 on March 24th. At the age of eight he became Vladimir Horowitz’s very first pupil. Janis played his debut concert at the Carnegie Hall in 1948 and instantly became one of the stars of his generation; he performed with all major orchestras and played at many major halls worldwide. In 1960, two years after Van Cliburn had won the first Tchaikovsky competition, Janis toured the Soviet Union with spectacular success. In 1973 he developed arthritis which brought his brilliant career to a halt. Here’s Byron Janis playing Rachmaninov’s Prelude in E-Flat Major, Op. 23, No. 6
And then there are two моrе eminent pianists, Wilhelm Backhaus and Rudolf Serkin. Backhaus was born on March 26th of 1884 in Leipzig, Serkin – on March 28th of 1903 in Eger, a town in Bohemia now called Cheb. Both immensely talented, both great interpreters of the music of Beethoven, both native German speakers, both spent a lot of time in the US, but it’s hard to imagine more different biographies. Backhaus was close to the Nazis and knew Hitler personally, though eventually he emigrated from Nazi Germany to Switzerland. Serkin, of Russian-Jewish decent, lived in Vienna and then in Berlin, but after the rise of Nazism had to flee Germany first to Switzerland then to the US.
Last but not least, Mstislav Rostropovich. The great cellist was born on March 27th of 1927.